


The Sixth Night

by TransBoyFanBoy



Series: Those Nights [7]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Fluff, M/M, Non-Sexual Age Play, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Shopping, bad chefs, bottles, cannot cook, ddlb, just so much fluff, part of a series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-08 02:05:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19097551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TransBoyFanBoy/pseuds/TransBoyFanBoy
Summary: Noah, Julian, and Nathan decide to spoil little Jackson... with an unexpected twist.





	The Sixth Night

**Author's Note:**

> So I am finally back to bring you an update to this story! I know it's been forever, but I have no motivation when it comes to writing anymore. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy this installment!

Jackson's POV

The next morning, Julian, Noah, and Nathan sat exhaustedly on the living room couch, while I settled myself in on the chair across from them sheepishly. They poked at their cereal with their spoons, but couldn't be bothered to actually lift the utensils to their mouths to eat. 

   Last night had been a challenge, to say the least.

   Around two in the morning, I accidentally woke all three of then up after a terrifying nightmare in which a tsunami separated me from all of my loved ones, leaving me all alone and helpless with major injuries. I remember that I had jerked awake when, in the dream, a large shard of glass had punctured my foot and stained the crystal clear material red with my blood. 

I had sobbed as soon as I woke up, and it hadn't even registered that I was surrounded on both sides by Julian and Nathan. They immediately woke up and tried to groggily comfort me in the darkness of the room. I wasn't calming down, and in fact my sobbing only grew harsher as time went on. I could only mumble out the words 'bad dream' though my hiccuping cries as I began to realize that I was safe, and that it had only been a dream. 

I hadn't come to that realization soon enough to spare Noah his rest, though, as he came bursting through the door in a panic at hearing my distressed cries. He had joined us on the bed and shushed me gently while Nathan pet my hair and Julian told me stories of anything that popped into his head.

About half an hour later, I was comfortably nuzzled between the three of them, and they asked me whether or not I needed to talk about my dream. I retailed the whole story and watched as their expressions became progressively dimmer with sadness for me and exhaustion from being up late. 

Finally, we managed to fall asleep again around four in the morning, only to have been woken up by my parents yelling to come down for breakfast at 7:15. We had groaned tiredly, but none of us could deny our hunger so we had lazily traipsed down the staircase after I changed out of my little clothes from the night before. Upon getting to the kitchen, we were met with toast, bacon, and cereal laid out on the island in the center of the kitchen. 

We had taken the food and gone to the living room immediately, and were now settled on the furniture with the television playing some cartoon in the background. I became focused on the show as I finished up my breakfast and woke up a little more, and I laughed along with the silly antics of the characters on the screen.

Unbeknownst to me, I had drawn the attention of Noah, Julian, and Nathan with my giggling, and they smiled adoringly for a few moments before finally lifting their spoons of cereal to their mouths before the food got all soggy.

It was dangerous to let myself start to feel small in this situation because my parents were in the next room, but I figured that nothing would happen because I had my brothers and my boyfriend to back me up if a situation arose. 

   It turned out to be a reall good thing that the three of them were there for me, as only fifteen minutes later I felt myself slip into my comfortable mindset and put my fingers in my mouth. I watched the show contently unil my mom walked in and startled me. I flinched and my hand was subconsciously pulled out of my mouth once I registered the voice.

"Did you boys enjoy breakfast? I'm not the best chef, trust me, but was it at least acceptable?" Julian and Noah chuckled slightly and reassured mom that their meals were fine.

   Nathan glanced over at me briefly and noticed my discomfort. Surely he knew what the cause was, so he stood and walked over to me before encouraging me to do the same. Once I was standing, he turned to my mom and shot her an award-winning smile.

"Mrs. Brewer, I was thinking about taking Jackson to the zoo today if you're okay with me stealing him." 

"Oh, of course! You two have a great time, and don't forget to send me pictures of the zebra enclosure if you get the chance! And Nathan, I've told you before to call me Carrie—Mrs Brewer makes me feel like a grandma." Nathan nodded and guided me towards the front door with his hand on the curve of my back.

"Will do, Carrie. Have a nice day, goodbye!" He took hold of my hand and pulled me out to the car after closing the front door behind us.

"That was a close one, huh, Jacky? Now let's get you changed and go to the zoo, little one."

—————————————————

Julian's POV

As soon as the front door closed, I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. I heard Noah do the same, and I was sure we were both thinking about how badly that could have ended. Sure, mom and dad love us and all, but I highly doubt they'd have been prepared to discover something like this about their youngest son so early in the morning.

Noah and I had quickly changed the channel after Jackson left because, let's face it, as cute as Jackson was with his attention fixed on the colorful cartoons, there was no way either of us could stand to have our brains melted by another episode of Scooby Doo. I felt especially bad for Noah; I've only known about Jackson's small side for a day, and I'm already tired of the mindless children's shows. I can't imagine how Noah's handled it all this time.

"Hey, Noah," I start casually.

"Yeah?" 

"You've known about Jackson's regression for a while, haven't you?" He nodded silently, turning to face me. I spoke again. "Why do you think he told you before he told me?"

Noah's face pinched at the question before transforming into a smirk.

"Why—you jealous?" I rolled my eyes but flushed slightly.

"No, I just... do you think it's because he didn't trust me? Was he afraid that I would judge him?" Noah sighed.

"I don't really know, Jules. He never really talked about it with me. I can only guess that it's because we were a lot closer growing up than you and him were. Maybe it wasn't that he didn't trust you, but that he was more comfortable and had a better idea of how I would react. Either way, you know now, and I can already tell that he's attached to you just like you are to him."

"Well yeah, he's our baby brother. Seeing him like that kinda reminds me of when we were actually kids, you know? And getting to hold him last night made me feel just like it did back then: like I was needed and helpful. It felt good, and it didn't hurt that he was so adorable in that state." A fond smile washed across our faces at the memories. "I'll admit that I was freaked out at first—mostly because I thought Nathan was taking advantage of Jackson—but once they explained it to me, it seemed kind of appealing, if that makes sense."

Noah nodded silently again.

"I know what you mean."

We smiled at each other once more before turning back to the basketball game playing on the tv.

———————————————

Jackson and Nathan showed back up at the house around 12:30 that afternoon. Nathan was carrying Jackson in his arms, who had a large stuffed tiger tucked under his chin. Jackson reached out for me with the plush toy still in his hand, and I was quick to scoop him up and sit with him on the couch. As he played with the toy on my lap, I turned around to see Noah and Nathan talking by the door. 

"What's up? What are you two talking about?" Nathan looked towards me and smiled.

"Noah was just suggesting that the three of us take Jackson out to do some shopping." The baby turned his attention to Nathan for a moment at the sound of his name before becoming absorbed in his little mind once again.

"I really want to spoil our baby brother, Jules." Noah chimed, and I hummed in response. 

"That's a good idea, but how will we get him presents without him knowing what we're up to? We can't exactly leave him alone like this."

The three of us wracked our brains for a few minutes before Nathan's eyes lit up.

"We could trade off! I could take him for part of the trip while you two buy him stuff, and then we would rotate in shifts until we got everything we needed." Noah and I nodded at the idea.

"Okay, cool. It's a good thing we're doing this now; I just got my paycheck from work a couple days ago, and mom and dad left to see a couple of friends a bit ago." I said happily.

"Okay, so it's settled. Let's go get Baby changed into another pull-up and we'll head out." Nathan walked over to me and picked Jackson up again, making him whine and reach for the tiger he dropped. I handed it to him, and they went upstairs while Noah and I got our shoes on and waited by the front door.

   A few minutes later, we turn our heads towards the staircase upon hearing our baby brother giggling like a maniac as Nathan gave him a piggyback ride down the stairs. They stopped in front of us, Nathan with a goofy grin on his face as he set Jackson down on his feet. Jackson went to Noah and took him by the index finger, then swung their hands as we walked out the front door. I was sure to lock it behind us; we'd definitely have major hell to pay if mom and dad found out we hadn't locked it when we left. I then noticed the backpack Jackson was wearing, and I look at Nathan confusedly. He mouthed 'little bag' to me, to which I nodded before continuing to the car.

   The four of us piled into the car; Nathan drove—if anyone knew where to find the things little Jackson would like, it was him—while I sat shotgun. Jackson and Noah sat in the backseat, and the former still had a vice grip on our older brother's finger. 

   I glanced back at the two of them in the reflection of my window every once in a while, and each time I noticed Jacks looking excitedly out the window at the buildings we passed. He would point them out to Noah and beam back at him with a childlike amazement gleaming in his eyes. Noah played along and reacted animatedly about how, 'yes, that's a very tall building, little dude! Look at that one!'. They went on like this for the entirety of the car ride, and I occasionally heard Nathan chuckling at them from the driver's seat.

   When we finally got to the mall, it was almost impossibly empty. Usually at this time on a weekend, there would be cars lining every row of the parking lot to the back, but we managed to get a spot relatively close to the entrance. We shuffled out of the car with little fanfare, and Jackson tried to run ahead of the rest of us into the building. Nathan shut that down quickly enough by calling him back over sternly, and Jackson huffed a but before complying.

   The store we entered into was huge, but we knew that there wouldn't be anything of interest to our needs carried within it, so we moved out to the main shopping area. We coughed a bit as we passed through the perfume shop on the way out, and I wondered how people could like the strongly-scented products on the shelves. 

   Finally, we made it out to the strip, and Nathan led us with a purpose to the food court. 

"Okay," Nathan started, "Here's the plan: I'm going to occupy Jacky with some food for a bit because we didn't have lunch at the zoo. You two will go look around and browse the stores untul you find things you think your brother would like. Then, we'll switch off at 2:30, and Noah will take him wherever he wamts to gonto keep him busy. We'll switch again at 3:30, and we'll go home at 4:30 so we can be there by 5:00. Does that sound good?" Noah and I nodded in agreement. We each leaned down to say goodbye to Jackson before heading in the opposite direction of the food court.

The first store we stopped at was brightly colored, and upbeat children's music was heard from the speakers inside: The Disney Store. We stepped in to look around. I felt like I was more or less going in blind when it came to picking out items that Jackson's small side would like; while Noah had the advantage of knowing this side of him for possibly longer than Nathan had, I had only one day of experience to go off of. 

I looked up to Noah with a lost expression. He laughed at me in the middle of the store, and people turned to stare at us. He led me to the back of the small shop and to a round shelving unit stuffed to the brim with various plush Disney characters. My eyes immediately settled on a stuffed pig with large ears and brown spots lining its soft, light faux fur. Noah smiled at me.

"He'd like that a lot, you know. It's Pua from Moana—one of Jack's favorite Disney movies to watch when he's small." 

I glanced up at him hesitantly for a moment before I bit my lip and nodded. I plucked the plush from the shelf and followed Noah to the cash register. I paid for the plush pig before we left to the next store.

We wandered for a bit to find another store with more practical kid's items, until we passed one that had me stopping in my tracks. Through the window, I could see rows upon rows of children's items ranging from bottles to pacifiers to diapers and more. I tugged on Noah's arm when I saw he was going to keep walking, and I pointed out the store to him in a sort of awe. 

We hastily scurried into the large store and grabbed a basket. 

"So, what first? What does he want? What does he need?" I asked somewhat frantically for some unknown reason.

"I'm not sure... definitely bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers, blankets—for security—, and maybe some pacifier clips? We could start with the basics and see what else we could get with Nathan when we take over for him with Jackson." I nodded, only slightly overwhelmed by what he considered "the basics".

We walked around the store to each baby item, deliberating on which patterned pacifiers, bottles, etc. that our baby brother would enjoy. The two of us picked a pretty diverse range of items, if I do say so myself. By the time we checked out, it was time to meet Nathan back at the food court so that Noah could take him.

With our bags in our hands, we made our way back to the restaurant area, where we found Nathan sitting with Jackson, who was swinging his feet happily. We kept the bags at our sides as we made it over to them, and we set them down by the tables before going over to coo at Jackson. He reached out for Noah, who leaned down to give him a hug before he sat next to the regressed boy. 

Nathan and I got into a short conversation while Jackson was distracted by Noah, and I asked him to check over the items we had bought so far to see if he thought Jack would like it. He seemed pretty happy about all of the things we got, and he was grateful that he would get to focus on buying "his baby" the fun things like toys.

Soon enough, Nathan said goodbye to Jackson.

"Okay, Jacky, Julian and I are gonna go shop a bit while you hang out with Noah. Are you gonna be a good boy for him while we're gone?"

"Yeah, Dada! Good boy!" Nathan smiled and gave the boy a sweet kiss on his head before he joined me again and left Noah and Jackson to their own devices.

Nathan and I walked in a comfortable silence to the next store. He hadn't told me what the store was, but once we got there, my eyes widened as I saw a clothing store full of pastel and lowkey childish outfits. 

"He really likes to feel pretty sometimes, depending on the day and his headspace age, so I was thinking we could get him some cute, light clothes." Nathan spoke casually, and I nodded, following him into the store and through the racks of cute clothing.

We picked out multiple items, most of mine picked with Nathan's help, and went to check out. Before we did so, my eyes caught on a baggy sweatshirt in the corner of the store. I drifted towards the multicolored fabric and bit my lip as I had in the Disney Store. It was really cute...

I shook myself out of it and turned around again, only to almost run into Nathan. He was stood behind me with a small, knowing grin on his face. He picked up the sweatshirt and went back to the checkout counter to pay for that on top of everything else he picked out. I payed for the clothes I bought before we left. 

My stomach growled after hitting another store and buying Jackson some bath toys, coloring books, and other baby toys/activities. Nathan snorted and started leading me back to the food court.

"It's almost time to meet up with Noah and Jacky again, anyways, so why don't we just get some food and wait for them there?" 

"Okay, thanks." I muttered sheepishly.

We ordered food from a random Chinese restaurant in the court, and took our food to a table towards the back of the area. We ate quietly for a few peaceful moments before Nathan broke it.

"It's okay, you know—earlier." I blushed up to my ears and shook my head, not meeting his eyes when I responded.

"What do you mean? What about earlier?" I played dumb, stuffing my face with more noodles. Nathan sighed.

"You know what I mean. I think I recognize the signs by now, Julian; I'm not dumb. Your mind has been wandering since the car ride here. It's okay." He pulled the baggy sweatshirt out of the shop's bag and handed it to me. 

I crammed the article into one of my shopping bags, still not looking up to meet Nathan's eyes. 

"Yeah, okay." I mumbled.

Several minutes later, Noah came skipping towards us with Jackson in tow. My little brother was giggling loudly, drawing a few strange looks from the strangers around us, but making Nathan and I laugh and call them over. 

"We had such a great time, didn't we, Jacks?" Jackson bounced and nodded, pulling a lollipop out of the plastic bag he was holding. 

"Mhmm! Got candy!" He unwrapped the sweet treat and began suckling on it as Nathan sighed.

"Explains the energy..." We laughed at his apparent despair.

   Soon enough, I finished my meal and took hold of Jackson's hand, telling him to wave goodbye to Noah and Nathan before we went on our way. 

   I knew exactly how we were going to spend this hour, and I knew that Jackson would completely love it no matter how little I knew about his small side so far.

"How would you like to go to Build-a-Bear, Little Dude?" His eyes lit up and he smiled up at me hopefully.

"Really, bubba? We can go?" I practically cooed at him as I nodded and started leading the way to where I remembered seeing it earlier. 

   We cruised down the strip until we reached the colorful store. His hand squeezed mine tighter as he vibrated with excitement and pulled me after him and straight to the wall of unstuffed plushies. He took quite a while to consider every option before settling on a black teddy bear with red spider webbing along its body. Its feet were decorated and showed that the bear was a Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse themed bear. I was about to turn around to take him to the stuffing machine, but he whined quietly and tugged on my shirt to pull me back. 

"You pick one..." Jackson murmured shyly to me, pointing at the wall. 

   I hesitated for several minutes as I fought with myself about whether or not I should. Finally, I just threw my doubts out the window and nodded, then went to pick out a plush. I was quicker about my decision, as my eyes were immediately drawn to the "Ruff n' Tumble Puppy", a cute, white dog with a brown spot on its eye and brown ears. We went to the stuffing station together and I endured the heart ceremony while Jackson took it completely seriously. I snickered a bit under my breath, but it was really adorable to see him so enamored by something so simple. 

   After they sewed up the toys, we went to the clothing area to pick outfits. I chose a simple mohawk hoodie covered in dog bones for my puppy, and I tried to hide my red cheeks when I glanced up to see the workers staring at me with raised eyebrows. My little bro was as indecisive as ever, and he took a lot of care in choosing each item to complete an outfit for his bear. It was sweet to watch, but I was growing uncomfortable in the environment rapidly.

   Roughly ten minutes later, he had his outfit chosen and was ready to go to the naming station to print his adoption certificate. I pulled him into a side hug after he entered all of the information into the computer by himself. I completed my own certificate and jotted down the obvious name "Spot" on mine. We then made our way to the registers to collect our certificates and pay for our toys. We got a few odd looks, especially since Jackson had glaring, childish excitement written all over his face, but I pulled him into my chest protectively and shot looks to the parents and workers around us that stared. We paid for our items and were given carrying boxes for the new plushies. Once they handed us our certificates, we bolted out of there.

"What did you name your new friend, buddy?" I asked in a doting tone.

"Named him Koda." The name tugged on my heartstrings a bit, admittedly; we used to watch Brother Bear all the time growing up, and I was happy to assume that he still remembered those moments. 

"That's a really cool name, Jacks. Now, I think it's time for us to head out and find Noah and your daddy, don't you think?" He nodded tiredly in response.

"You look like you could use a nap, Little Dude. Want me to carry you?"

"But people..." Jackson started sleepily.

"Don't worry about that; I'm here for you." Reluctantly, he agreed, and so I picked him up with him still holding the cardboard house in his hand. He rested his head on my shoulder as I took out my phone and called Noah. He answered almost immediately.

"Hey," I said, "How's it going?" I heard shuffling on the other line for a moment before Noah answered.

"It's pretty good; we're just finishing up here. You?"

"We're done too. Little Man conked out on my shoulder a minute ago; I'm heading towards the entrance right now to take him to the car. Meet you by the benches outside?" Again, shuffling was heard on the other line, as well as some muffled speaking, before Noah responded again.

"Yeah, that sounds good. We'll be out in a few." He hung up the phone as I maneuvered us out of the mall's doors and to the benches by the entrance we came in. 

   I set the box from Build-a-Bear down on the ground as I sat on the bench with Jackson in my lap. I petted his hair as I thought about the conversation I had with Nathan earlier.

   Soon, Noah and Nathan strolled out the doors with arms full of shopping bags, then turned and saw us. They smiled and jerked their heads in the direction of the car. I managed to pick the box back up and carry my little brother out to the car. I put him in the backseat after loading our plushies in, and when I tried to lean up to go to the front seat, I found that he had a tight grip on my shirt and wouldn't let go. I sighed and sat in the backseat with him leaned against my side. 

   The rest of the bags were loaded into the trunk, and we left for the house, the bumpy roads lulling me to sleep along the way.

———————————————

Noah's POV

When we got home, Nathan turned off the car and we stepped out, each of us taking the gifts for Jackson inside and to the living room. Thankfully, mom and dad had texted earlier and said they would be going out to see a movie with their friends, and that they wouldn't be back until late at night. We would have a decent amount of time with Jackson tonight, and hopefully he would be small enough to not be embarrassed by the gifts we got him today. I heard plastic rustling and turned to Nathan, who was looking through the bags seemingly in search of something. 

He pulled a pastel, multicolored sweatshirt out of a plastic bag before he noticed me staring. 

"We bought something for Julian earlier at one of the stores. I'm going to put it in his room." He explained.

'That's for Julian? Hm..'

"Oh, okay then." I said.

He took the sweatshirt upstairs to put it in Julian's room, then ran back downstairs. 

"We should probably go wake Julian and Jackson up now." Nathan nodded and we went outside.

We each took one side of the car and opened the doors to the backseat, tapping both boys' shoulders until they stirred. Julian opened his eyes and glared at me groggily, while Jackson whined as Nathan picked him up out of the car. We went inside as the two woke up fully. 

Julian was fully awake as we turned on the tv, while Jackson was slowly coming to and pouting up at us.

"Aw, c'mon now, Little Guy, show us your pretty smile," Jackson continued to pout at my statement, "We got you presents today, buddy, but we can't have a grumpy baby opening them." Jackson jumped up and plastered on a wide smile as he ran over to me.

"Not grumpy, Bubby, not grumpy!" We laughed as he so emphatically insisted he wasn't being grumpy.

"Okay then, Babyboy, sit down on the couch and we'll get the bags so you can look through everything." Nathan cooed.

"Okay, Daddy!" He sat on the couch between Julian and I and bounced on the couch cushion as he waited somewhat impatiently.

   Nathan came back over with the bags of toys, supplies, accessories, and other things we bought for Jackson, as well as two cardboards boxes labeled "Build-a-Bear Workshop".  My brows furrowed at those.

"Julian, you got him two stuffed animals from Build-a-Bear?" I tried to portray only slight disapproval to him for spending so much on two plushies at one time, but realized that was the whole point of the day and let up a bit.

"No... I got him one, and he wanted me to make one for myself. I was just indulging him." He fidgeted in his spot as Jackson was handed the first bag from the mall.

   A squeal interrupted my thoughts, and I turned my attention away from Julian towards the noise. Jacks had just emptied out the bags of toys Nathan and I had gotten while Julian watched him. He hugged the softer toys to his chest and shook one of the rattling toys. Then, he moved onto the bag from the Disney Store. Julian watched with bated breath as he pulled out the Pua plushie, and he let out a sigh of relief when our little brother rubbed the fabric of the pig against his cheek and looked up at us. 

"Thank you, love it..." I nodded to Julian, and Jackson leaned over to give him a hug.

   He continued opening the bags until he reached the end, and then he stood up and hugged all of us as a thank you. He was rubbing his eyes, still not fully rested from his short nap earlier, and his stomach rumbled.

"Hungry..." he admitted with a yawn.

"Aw, buddy, why don't you lay down on the couch and take a nap while we make you some dinner?" I suggested to the tot.

   Jackson nodded as Julian and I stood up to cover him with a blanket we'd bought earlier. Once he was tucked under the soft, dark blue material, Nathan placed a pacifier at his lips. He accepted it immediately and gave it a few small suckles before drifting to sleep.

   Nathan, Julian, and I made our way into the kitchen to make dinner for all of us.

"So, slight problem," Julian began, "I have no clue how to cook, and I'm almost sure that Noah doesn't either." 

   I took offense to that, but I knew he was right. I had never bothered to learn how to cook, so anytime I tried it turned out disastrously.

"Well you two are lucky that I'm used to cooking. My parents are gone on business a lot, so I learned along the way. I'm not too bad, if I do say so myself." We chuckled at his confidence and asked him to teach us for when we babysat Jackson by ourselves. 

   He told us that we would just make something relatively simple: grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. Luckily, it was one of Jackson's favorite meals when he's on the older end of his headspace range, so it would be a safe and easy meal for us beginners.

   We heated up the skillet after toasting and buttering the slices of bread, then placed the cheese on top of the toast. While the cheese melted, Nathan showed us how to cook the ham on the skillet and told us how to tell when it was done and ready to be placed on the sandwich. While we were focused on that, a few of the slices of toast got burnt by the hot griddle. Julian and I sighed and resigned ourselves to eating those sandwiches.

   About ten minutes later, all of the sanwiches were finished and deemed the right temperature to feed to Jackson by Nathan. The boy was still sleeping on the couch, so Nathan asked me to wake him up and bring him in. 

   I went to the living room and brushed Jackson's hair out of hos face, whispering his name gently to wake him up. He cracked his eyes open with the pacifier still in his mouth, and he whimpered while motioning to me with grabby hands. I cooed softly and picked him up, holding him close to my chest as I carried him back to the kitchen. 

   As I was about to round the corner to enter the dining room, I heard mumbling coming from the two guys in the room.

————————————————

Julian's POV (again)

"Julian, I know you may feel awkward about this, but have you even considered the fact that you might be small like Jacky?" Nathan spoke almost as soon as Noah left to wake Jackson up.

   My cheeks heated up exponentially, and I was quick to defend myself.

"No! I mean... I didn't even know what this was until yesterday, Nathan, how could I ever have considered that?"

"It's alright, Julian. I'm not accusing you of anything. I just noticed how you were looking at Jacky while he unbagged his gifts, and with what happened this afternoon, I just thought I would ask."

"What do you mean? How was I looking at Jackson?" Nathan sighed at me.

"Like... like you were jealous, Julian. Or maybe not jealous, but definitely longing for something you don't have. You've never felt like that before?"

   Tears welled up in my eyes as I planted my gaze on the ground. 

"I guess I've noticed something was off before today... I just brushed it off as exhaustion or something."

"And what did you notice, Jules?" Nathan asked tenderly from next to me.

"Just little things; when we passed down kid aisles at stores, I would linger in them for longer than any other aisle. Sometimes, when I'd see advertisements for toys and stuff for kids on tv, I'd get invested in them more than any of my friends. Whenever I see soft fabrics or stuffed animals, I just get a strong urge to touch them or, like, bury my face in them. Simple things, you know? It's been like this for years and years; I never thought much of it." When I finished my speech, I risked a glance up at Nathan, who was sending me an understanding and accepting look. 

"I understand, Julian. This may not be what you want to hear, but I think this is something you should explore more. From your descriptions, I'd say that your behaviors, no matter how unconscious they may be, align with those of most age regressors I've ever encountered. This is not a bad thing, remember that." I nodded slowly and hugged Nathan briefly.

"Thank you."

   At that moment, Noah rounded the corner with a still half-asleep Jackson in his arms. Nathan opened his arms to take Jackson into his lap after Noah tried unsuccessfully to settle him down into a seat for dinner.

"Someone's feeling like a clingy baby tonight, hm?" Jackson nodded into his shoulder, "My little koala." Nathan muttered comfortingly into his hair.

I passed Jackson's plate over to Nathan and began eating my own food. Noah looked at me strangely, and I redirected my gaze to my plate, staring hard enough at it that I was sure it would break from the intensity. I finished my two sandwiches quickly, then excused myself to the living room and turned on the tv. I forced myself to flip past the kid channel no matter how badly I didn't want to.

I heard quiet talking from the kitchen, mostly just Nathan cooing at Jackson as he fed him his dinner, and I smiled at the sound. 

'I want that.' I thought before stopping myself with wide eyes. I could not afford to think those kinds of things... but I wanted to. It seemed that finding out the word for it was all my brain needed to keep me focused on letting myself go in this way. I didn't like it, but at the same time, I really did.

   Soon, all four of us were in the living room again. Nathan spoke up to tease Noah and I.

"So that dinner was interesting. You guys are great chefs, truly. I'd rate you five stars." We laughed along with him as Jackson occupied himself with his new toys on the ground in front of us.

"Shut up, Nathan, you watched over us and we still burned it; that doesn't reflect too well on the teacher, does it?" I remarked wittily.

"Well that's why they say 'if you can't do, teach'." Nathan replied.

"What are you talking about?" Noah piped up from the other end of the couch. "That didn't make any sense whatsoever."

"It does too. If you can't do: teach. If you can do—like me—don't teach. Makes perfect sense. I'm not a good teacher because I can actually cook, see?" Weirdly, Nathan's point did make some semblance of sense to me.

   We talked for a while longer before Nathan peeked at the clock and stood up. 

"Well, it's getting late; I think I'm gonna head home now. It was nice hanging out with you guys today." 

"Yeah, dude, same to you!" I said enthusiastically.

   Nathan crouched down to give Jackson a kiss on the head and ruffle his hair.

"I gotta go now, Jacky. You be a good boy for you Bubba and Bubby, okay?" Jackson nodded happily and gave Nathan a kiss on the cheek.

"Mhm, will be good, Dada! Love youuu!"

"Dada loves you too, Baby. Bye bye." He waved at Jackson, who waved back and turned his attention to his toys once again.

   I walked to the door with Nathan and wished him a goodnight. He did the same to me before walking out onto the front porch. He went to walk to his car, but turned around and came back to me for a moment.

"What's wrong? Did you forget something?" I asked, and he smiled warmly.

"No, I've got everything."

"Okayyy..." I looked at him oddly.

"Okay. And, Julian?"

"Yeah?" He smiled again before speaking in a hushed whisper.

"I really think you should talk about this with one of your brothers. They love you a lot, you know. It's just a suggestion, but I think it would do you well. Goodnight." And with that, he turned on his heel and waltzed out to his car, swinging his keys the whole way.

   That night, I walked back into the house, back into the living room, with a lot on my mind.

**Author's Note:**

> Word count: 6,351
> 
> Well, that certainly was an adventure, wasn’t it? This was the longest chapter I’ve ever written, and it did not go in the direction I was planning for it at all! Nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed the—possibly—unexpected change!


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